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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793172">He Is Not My Enemy But My Friend</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia'>Hevheia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Enemies to Friends, M/M, Pre-Canon, this prompt was too perfect not to write this for them</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:42:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>555</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After years of travelling together, the hostility between Yusuf and Nicolò has changed into something neither of them expected.</p>
<p>Part of the The Old Guard Duolingo prompts series: a series I started posting on tumblr where I take random sentences from duolingo and use them as prompts for small drabbles of our favourite immortals!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952467</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>130</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>He Is Not My Enemy But My Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt: He is not my enemy but my friend (Αυτός δεν είναι εχθρός μου αλλά φίλος μου)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By now, after months of being forced to travel together, Nicolò knows enough of Yusuf’s language to understand what he has said.</p>
<p>
  <i>He is not my enemy but my friend.</i>
</p>
<p>Even long after the men have left, the words throb in the air, rattling and rumbling like thunder in Nicolò’s mind. He doesn’t know what the men said to Yusuf, they spoke too fast and with an accent different from Yusuf’s, but he is certain Yusuf could have said something else. Anything else. </p>
<p>Why did he lie? Nicolò wonders. Would the men have killed Nicolò if he was anything less than Yusuf’s friend, resulting in discovering his immortality and thus their own inevitable death? </p>
<p>It must be. For Nicolò cannot possibly think of another reason. Yusuf did it to protect them. Enough of his people have already been killed because of Nicolò. Too many. Oh Lord, way too many.</p>
<p>It is the first time he has caught Yusuf lying. He used to think he did nothing else, that every word he spoke was poisoned and trapped in a silky web of lies. But during their travel, Nicolò has come to know the man he once despised and distrusted. And he has come to realise he’s a man of integrity and truth. A man he, despite all odds and expectations, has come to admire. And the fact that he lied, something that is so clearly against his nature, to protect those men only strengthens Nicolò’s admiration and shoots the familiar piercing sting of guilt through his chest.</p>
<p>He has so much to repent for, God help him.</p>
<p>‘Thank you,’ he says in the safety of the dying campfire. The first words either of them has spoken since the men left. </p>
<p>Yusuf turns his head and Nicolò glances up at him furtively to find a furrowed brow in silent question.</p>
<p>‘For lying to those men earlier,’ he clarifies. ‘I know you did not do it for me, but I would like to thank you nonetheless.’</p>
<p>Yusuf is silent for a while. Nicolò’s chest is so tight he can hardly breathe, as if the hand of a giant clenches around it. </p>
<p>‘I do not understand what gave you the impression I lied,’ Yusuf says eventually, impossibly. </p>
<p>The giant’s hand squeezes and turns Nicolò upside down too fast so the world spins around him. </p>
<p>When his surroundings swim into view again, Nicolò’s eyes find Yusuf. He is carving away at some branch, making one of his small figurines, and does not look at Nicolò. his face is calm, his body relaxed in that easy and confident way of his.</p>
<p>
  <i>He is not my enemy but my friend.</i>
</p>
<p>The giant loosens his grip and the room in Nicolò’s chest that comes free fills itself with a crashing whirlpool of feelings he cannot begin to describe. One of them he recognises, one that sets all others in motion and forms the core of the vortex: relief. </p>
<p>He quickly wipes away the tears that escape him without warning. He tries to hide it from Yusuf, but he notices it either way. He scoots over a little, puts his hand on Nicolò’s shoulder, firmly and reassuringly and almost fondly, and smiles at him. </p>
<p>A shaky laugh escapes Nicolò. He puts his hand over Yusuf’s in silent gratitude and smiles back at his friend.</p>
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